30 May 1974

The Airbus A300 passenger aircraft first enters service.

The Airbus A300 is a prominent aircraft in the history of aviation as it was the first twin-engine wide-body airliner ever produced.

Introduction and Development

First Flight: The Airbus A300 first flew on October 28, 1972.
Entry into Service: It entered service in 1974 with Air France.
Manufacturer: Developed and manufactured by Airbus, a European multinational aerospace corporation.

Design and Specifications

Type: Twin-engine, wide-body, medium-to-long range airliner.
Capacity: The A300 typically seats between 210 and 330 passengers, depending on the configuration.
Engines: Initially, it used engines such as the General Electric CF6 or the Pratt & Whitney JT9D.
Range: Depending on the variant, the range varies but can reach up to approximately 7,500 kilometers (about 4,660 miles).

Variants

A300B2 and A300B4: These were the early production models, with the B4 offering increased range.
A300-600: An improved version featuring updated engines and avionics, increased range, and capacity.
A300F: A freighter version used by cargo operators.

Impact and Legacy

Technological Innovations: The A300 introduced several technological advancements, including the use of advanced materials and systems that paved the way for future aircraft designs.
Market Impact: It helped Airbus establish itself as a major player in the commercial aircraft market, breaking the dominance of American manufacturers like Boeing and McDonnell Douglas.
Production: Airbus produced a total of 561 A300s before ceasing production in July 2007.

Operators

Airlines: Major operators have included Air France, Lufthansa, and FedEx, among others. Many of these airlines have since retired their A300 fleets, although some cargo carriers still use the aircraft.
Freighter Conversions: The durability and reliability of the A300 have made it a popular choice for conversion to freighter configurations.

Significance

The Airbus A300 was crucial in establishing Airbus as a competitive force in the aviation industry. Its introduction marked a significant shift in aircraft design and economics, emphasizing efficiency and passenger comfort in medium-to-long-haul travel.

30 May 1814

The First Treaty of Paris is signed, returning the French frontiers to their 1792 extent, and restoring the House of Bourbon to power.

The First Treaty of Paris was signed on May 30, 1814, between France and the victorious powers of the Sixth Coalition, which included Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia. It marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the downfall of Napoleon Bonaparte’s rule as Emperor of the French.

The treaty aimed to restore peace and redraw the map of Europe after years of conflict. Its main provisions included:

France’s boundaries: France was restored to its pre-revolutionary borders, as they stood on January 1, 1792, before Napoleon’s expansionist campaigns.

Return of occupied territories: The countries that had been occupied by French forces during the Napoleonic Wars were to be returned to their pre-war rulers. This involved the return of territories to various European states, including Spain, Portugal, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and the Papal States.

Compensation for France: France was allowed to retain its overseas colonies, such as Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, and Réunion. It also received financial compensation to compensate for the loss of territories in Europe.

Restoration of monarchies: The treaty aimed to restore the monarchies that had been overthrown by Napoleon. This included the reinstatement of the Bourbon monarchy in France, with Louis XVIII becoming the King of France.

Reparations: France was required to pay reparations to the allied powers for the costs of the war. The exact amount was determined later in subsequent treaties.

Congress of Vienna: The treaty also established the Congress of Vienna, which was held from September 1814 to June 1815. The Congress aimed to negotiate and establish a long-term balance of power in Europe and redefine the political landscape after the Napoleonic era.

The First Treaty of Paris set the stage for further negotiations and agreements that would shape Europe for the next century. However, the peace would prove to be temporary, as Napoleon would later escape from exile and regain power in France for a brief period in what is known as the Hundred Days, leading to the final defeat of the French at the Battle of Waterloo and the subsequent Second Treaty of Paris in 1815.

30 May 1635

The Peace of Prague is signed.

The Peace of Prague was a peace treaty signed on 30 May 1635 by the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand II and Elector John George I of Saxony representing most of the Protestant Estates of the Holy Roman Empire. It effectively brought to an end the civil war aspect of the Thirty Years’ War; however, the combat actions still carried on due to the continued intervention on German soil by Spain, Sweden, and, from mid-1635, France, until the Peace of Westphalia was concluded in 1648.

Negotiations towards the agreement between the Emperor and the Saxon elector had been instigated by Landgrave George II of Hesse-Darmstadt, who whilst being a Lutheran prince had remained neutral during the Swedish intervention in 1630. Likewise, Elector John George I had initially supported Ferdinand II against the revolting Bohemian estates and maintained a neutral position throughout the following years. However, after continued plundering of the Saxon lands by the troops of the Catholic League, he had joined the Swedish forces of King Gustav Adolph at the 1631 Battle of Breitenfeld. The king’s death at the Battle of Lützen in 1632 and the Protestant defeat at the 1634 Battle of Nördlingen prompted the elector to again switch sides.
Emperor Ferdinand II, c.?1635
The Emperor had seen achieved successes ruined by the Swedish invasion and found himself constrained to transfer extraordinary powers to his Generalissimo Albrecht von Wallenstein. After years of fighting, an inability to reimpose the Catholic confession by force, Wallenstein’s assassination, and the need to put an end to the intervention of foreign powers in German affairs all combined to bring Ferdinand II to the table with a degree of willingness to make concessions towards the Lutheran estates.

30 May 1975

The European Space Agency is established.

The ESA Convention was signed in Paris on 30 May 1975 by the nine original Member States Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. It entered into force on 30 October 1980 with the deposit of the last instrument of ratification by France, in accordance with its Article XXI, 1.

The idea of creating an independent space organisation in Europe dated back to the early 1960s when six European countries – Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK – formed the European Launcher Development Organisation to develop and build a heavy launcher called ‘Europa’. In 1962, those same countries, plus Denmark, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, formed the European Space Research Organisation to undertake mainly scientific satellite programmes.

In 1975, a convention was concluded at diplomatic and ministerial level to set up one ‘European Space Agency’, effectively merging ESRO and ELDO, and broadening the scope of the agency’s remit to include operational space applications systems, such as telecommunications satellites.

The ESA collaborated with NASA on the International Ultraviolet Explorer, the world’s first high-orbit telescope, which was launched in 1978 and operated successfully for 18 years. A number of successful Earth-orbit projects followed, and in 1986 ESA began Giotto, its first deep-space mission, to study the comets Halley and Grigg–Skjellerup. Hipparcos, a star-mapping mission, was launched in 1989 and in the 1990s SOHO, Ulysses and the Hubble Space Telescope were all jointly carried out with NASA. Later scientific missions in cooperation with NASA include the Cassini–Huygens space probe, to which ESA contributed by building the Titan landing module Huygens.

As the successor of ELDO, ESA has also constructed rockets for scientific and commercial payloads. Ariane 1, launched in 1979, carried mostly commercial payloads into orbit from 1984 onward. The next two versions of the Ariane rocket were intermediate stages in the development of a more advanced launch system, the Ariane 4, which operated between 1988 and 2003 and established ESA as the world leader in commercial space launches in the 1990s. Although the succeeding Ariane 5 experienced a failure on its first flight, it has since firmly established itself within the heavily competitive commercial space launch market with 82 successful launches until 2018. The successor launch vehicle of Ariane 5, the Ariane 6, is under development and is envisioned to enter service in the 2020s.

The beginning of the new millennium saw ESA become, along with agencies like NASA, JAXA, ISRO, CSA and Roscosmos, one of the major participants in scientific space research. Although ESA had relied on co-operation with NASA in previous decades, especially the 1990s, changed circumstances led to decisions to rely more on itself and on co-operation with Russia. A 2011 press issue thus stated.

30 May 1574

Henry III becomes King of France.

Henry III, also called Henry of Valois, king of France from 1574, under whose reign the prolonged crisis of the Wars of Religion was made worse by dynastic rivalries arising because the male line of the Valois dynasty was going to die out with him.

The third son of Henry II and Catherine de Médicis, Henry was at first entitled duc d’Anjou. Given command of the royal army against the Huguenots during the reign of his brother, Charles IX, he defeated two Huguenot leaders, the prince de Condé at Jarnac in March 1569 and Gaspard de Coligny at Moncontour in October of that year. Henry was Catherine’s favourite son, much to Charles’s chagrin, and she used her influence to advance his fortunes. In 1572 she presented him as a candidate for the vacant throne of Poland, to which he was finally elected in May 1573. In May 1574, however, Charles died, and Henry abandoned Poland and was crowned at Reims on Feb. 13, 1575. He was married two days later to Louise de Vaudémont, a princess of the house of Lorraine. The marriage proved childless.

The French Wars of Religion continued during Henry III’s reign. In May 1576 he agreed to the Peace of Monsieur, named after the style of his brother François, duc d’Alençon, but his concession to the Huguenots in the Edict of Beaulieu angered the Roman Catholics, who formed the Holy League to protect their own interests. Henry resumed the war against the Huguenots, but the Estates-General, meeting at Blois in 1576, was weary of Henry’s extravagance and refused to grant him the necessary subsidies. The Peace of Bergerac ended the hostilities temporarily; the Huguenots lost some of their liberties by the Edict of Poitiers, and the Holy League was dissolved. In 1584, however, the Roman Catholics were alarmed when the Huguenot leader, Henry of Navarre, became heir to the throne on the death of Henry III’s brother François, and the League was revived under the leadership of Henri, 3e duc de Guise.